By the 1990s though, polar bears had become the focus of campaigns to end the caging of big, intelligent, far-roaming animals. British zoos seemed to accept the argument that these carnivores, whose wild home range could be as vast as 135,000 square miles, could not flourish in a zoo enclosure less than a millionth of that size. By the turn of the century, just one polar bear remained in Britain.<\/p>\n
Now, however, the polar bears are back. In the last year, Jimmy\u2019s Farm, the farm and wildlife park run by farmer, conservationist and TV presenter Jimmy Doherty, has taken in four. A further 12 bears live in three other British parks. Are these captive animals the best hope for a climate-challenged species whose wild population has dwindled to 26,000? Or should they not be here at all?<\/p>\n The fact that a 49-year-old pig farmer owns four polar bears could be the most bizarre farm diversification ever. \u201cOwner of polar bears. It makes me sound like I\u2019m a Nordic god,\u201d muses Doherty, resplendent in double denim. How about the British Tiger King? \u201cJimmy Exotic. That would be something. I haven\u2019t got the outfits he\u2019s got,\u201d says Doherty of the eccentric Joe Exotic from the Netflix series. \u201cAnd I won\u2019t be ringing up Trump to get me out of jail.\u201d<\/p>\n The story of how Doherty built the largest polar bear enclosure in Europe stretches back to his childhood, when he was school friends with Jamie Oliver. The young Doherty was mad-keen on nature, worked at a wildlife park and spent his earnings (he still remembers his wage: \u00a31.12 an hour) on his own menagerie: polecats, terrapins, stick insects. \u201cIn my bedroom were loads of snakes. I kept my pocket money in a glass jar inside a snake tank so no one would nick it.\u201d<\/p>\n Later, Doherty studied zoology before dropping out of an entomology PhD to rear pigs. He\u2019d been inspired by John Seymour\u2019s self-sufficiency books, and with his entrepreneurial instincts he realised he could sell rare-breed pork and bacon directly to new farmers\u2019 markets. He rented 40.4 hectares (100 acres) of derelict ground and lived in a caravan; he was assisted by the Jimmy\u2019s Farm documentary series and a \u00a355,000 loan from Oliver. When he opened a farm shop he saw that visitors were fascinated by the animals. \u201cSo I put a sow and a litter out, and then a trail, and it became a farm park,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Then the phone calls began. The RSPCA asked him to take emus found in a shed in Ipswich. A snapping turtle was discovered by a local garage. \u201cShe\u2019s called Peaches,\u201d he says. \u201cMore and more exotic stuff.\u201d When Doherty opened a butterfly house, his farm became a registered zoo.<\/p>\n Doherty sees nothing odd about the pigs and polar bears combo \u2013 it\u2019s all part of his mission to champion global and local conservation, farming and rewilding, and reconnect children with nature and local food production, as he explains when we walk through his park.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a rescued South American ring-tailed coati and racoons saved from a shed in Felixstowe. You may say Doherty\u2019s a rescuer. He also can\u2019t resist a big idea. \u201cThere\u2019s always another one around the corner,\u201d he says. \u201cSomeone says \u2018we need your help\u2019 and it somehow gives you permission.\u201d Doherty once said that he never wanted his park to be one of those places with polar bears and tigers. But that changed in 2022 when he heard that Orsa Predator Park in Sweden was closing and needed to rehome two polar bears.<\/p>\n \u201cEwa had a tough life \u2013 alopecia, a broken claw. She couldn\u2019t go back to the wild and they were going to put her down,\u201d says Doherty. \u201cTime was of the essence.\u201d He borrowed money from the bank and, using donated telegraph poles, built 15km of 4m-high fencing around a 6.5-hectare (16-acre) enclosure, which includes a 16m-deep purpose-built pool, two dens, a state-of-the-art ventilated house, a saltwater dipping pool and a large natural woodland area. This facility cost \u00a31m. \u201cIt\u2019s a massive commitment. It\u2019s like getting married again,\u201d he says. Was it a big risk? \u201cWas? Still is.\u201d<\/p>\n Two bears, Ewa and her adult cub Miki, were shipped from Sweden to Suffolk last autumn. Within days of arriving, Miki was dead. \u201cThat was horrific,\u201d says Doherty. Miki had an undiagnosed heart condition. \u201cShe was a ticking timebomb. She could\u2019ve gone at any time. It was really sad.\u201d<\/p>\n Since then, Ewa has been joined by fellow females Hope (a former companion from Sweden), and Flocke and Tala from Yorkshire Wildlife Park. These two are part of the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) for polar bears, an official zoo breeding programme which aims to safeguard healthy populations of threatened species in captivity.<\/p>\n On a bright autumn day, Tala is playing in a lake, while Flocke and Hope are quickly drawn to a keeper arriving with melons, which they love. Ewa is ambling alone \u2013 it\u2019s important they can find private space, explains park director Stevie Sheppard. \u201cThere\u2019s two big things we try to do with all our animals. One is to give them space. And the second is choice. If they want to walk in the woods because it\u2019s cooler, they can walk in the woods. They can dive in the deep lakes, bathe in the shallow pool or roll around in the grass or go in a den \u2013 it\u2019s their choice.\u201d<\/p>\n You see them sliding down the hill in the woodland. They pile up the mud and roll about<\/p><\/blockquote>\n How an Arctic species copes with sunny Suffolk at 52 degrees north may be the most-asked question. Doherty points out that mean high summer temperatures in Hudson Bay \u2013 polar bear country \u2013 are higher than Suffolk\u2019s 22C. \u201cOur worry was the high temperatures \u2013 that\u2019s when they get heat stress,\u201d says Doherty. \u201cIf they want to regulate their temperature they can go in the woodland, which is about 4C cooler. Having that woodland and the deep pool has really helped.\u201d<\/p>\n Enrichment includes a varied, seasonal diet, whole-carcass feeding (a dead horse or cow), food in blocks of ice, foraging for blackberries, watching the small fish in the ponds and plenty of toys. Doherty particularly enjoys letting them into the woods. \u201cYou see them sliding down the hill in the woodland. They pile up the mud and roll about,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The enclosures at Jimmy\u2019s Farm are a far cry from traditional zoo pens. For critics, however, they are still a much, much smaller space than the wild species enjoys. \u201cWe acknowledge that the facilities in the UK are some of the larger facilities in Europe,\u201d says Chris Lewis of the Born Free Foundation. Ultimately, the charity believes that no polar bears should be kept in captivity. They point to evidence of stress in captivity: shortened lifespans, a high level of stress-related fatalities, high infant mortality (a 2003 study put it at 65%), and a high risk of captivity-induced diseases. \u201cOur short-term asks of the zoo industry would be to stop breeding polar bears and then look to phase out the existing population,\u201d says Lewis, \u201cbecause there\u2019s no meaningful or direct conservation benefit to keeping polar bears in captivity.\u201d<\/p>\n Lewis says it is \u201chard to understand\u201d why polar bears have returned to British zoos. Are they irresistible? Back in 2007, one bear powerfully demonstrated their box-office status to the rest of the European zoo community. Knut, a cub rejected by his mother at Berlin zoo, was hand-reared by a devoted keeper and became a global media sensation. Knutmania saw Berlin zoo enjoy the most profitable year in its 163-year history, with 30% more visitors and \u20ac5m in revenue. Merchandise, books and films followed \u2013 and tragedy. Knut\u2019s keeper died, and so did Knut, aged just four, of a seizure triggered by encephalitis.<\/p>\n Bringing polar bears to Jimmy\u2019s Farm was clearly a decision of the heart for Doherty \u2013 but he had his financial head on too. \u201cThe sums have to add up, otherwise you\u2019re being foolish. You make sure you repay the loans,\u201d he says. They had a 50% increase in visitors over summer half-term and are aiming for 300,000 this year.<\/p>\n Another reason for British zoos bringing back polar bears is the innovative work of Douglas Richardson. At Highland Wildlife Park in 2009, he oversaw the creation of a new polar bear enclosure, so Britain\u2019s ageing last polar bear, Mercedes, could be relocated from Edinburgh. Bear enclosures were once expensively made from concrete and steel, which necessarily made them small. Richardson deployed much more cost-effective deer fencing, reinforced with electric fencing, which was cheap enough to build a four-hectare (10-acre) enclosure.<\/p>\n \u201cUsing what one colleague called \u2018chicken wire and harsh language\u2019 to contain polar bears allowed you to enclose very large areas very economically,\u201d says Richardson, who has since advised all three British zoos that keep them. Yorkshire Wildlife Park set up a new four-hectare (10-acre) enclosure in 2014; they now have six bears. Staffordshire\u2019s Peak Wildlife Park keeps two bears in two hectares (five acres). Under Richardson\u2019s guidance, the first British polar bear cub for 25 years, Hamish, was born at Highland Wildlife Park in 2017.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way polar bears were kept in zoos historically was, to be frank, nothing short of appalling,\u201d says Richardson. But he argues the new enclosures are a different world. He didn\u2019t recognise Ewa when he checked on her at Jimmy\u2019s Farm in September: her alopecia has vanished, she\u2019s off medication and has returned to her natural cycle. Of Doherty\u2019s woodland, Richardson says: \u201cIt\u2019s not exactly polar bear habitat but there\u2019s lots of shade and lots of interesting smells. And it turns out polar bears like mushrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n The idea of zoos being arks for imperilled wild populations remains a popular one. But a zoo-kept polar bear has never been successfully returned to the wild. \u201cCommon zoo reintroduction successes are usually invertebrates they\u2019ve been able to breed in large numbers,\u201d says Lewis. \u201cOther examples that the zoo industry uses are always the same because there\u2019s so few \u2013 the Arabian oryx, the California condor. There\u2019s not enough space to keep [polar bears] in enough numbers to have a genetically diverse population that is healthy enough to release into the wild. Zoos are almost a distraction. Conservation action needs to be taken to address the threats facing these species in the wild \u2013 the climate crisis, pollution, human encroachment.\u201d<\/p>\n Richardson, who advises the European captive-breeding programme for polar bears, admits that \u201creintroducing polar bears from a captive population would be hugely, hugely difficult\u201d but argues that at least a captive population retains that option. He says the European population of 120 animals, based on 60 founder animals, is genetically viable because there has been a steady addition of new wild individuals via Russia. \u201cIf you have a regular infusion of new founders your actual population need not be enormous,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n In the near future, Richardson predicts that global heating will lead to more climate change refugee polar bears requiring rescue from the wild. He hopes that new, massive fenced reserves more reflective of the polar bears\u2019 natural range may be established, mimicking how many African safari animals live in fenced reserves.<\/p>\n Polar bear Ewa eating a carrot. Back at Jimmy\u2019s Farm, Doherty is not ruling out breeding polar bears. \u201cMaybe one day, if we were called upon, and there was good reason to do it, and it was that we need more paws on the ground,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, there\u2019s another big idea \u2013 or animal rescue \u2013 to attend to. Despite being \u201cskint\u201d, Doherty crowdfunded to save the last brown bear, Diego, from Orsa Predator Park, and is now importing another brown bear from a Romanian sanctuary. I can imagine Michaela, Doherty\u2019s wife, rolling her eyes at his latest rescue. Does he get told off for all the new burdens he acquires? \u201cQuite a lot. There\u2019s always someone that needs help. That\u2019s the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\nEwa enjoying a carrot in the autumn sunshine. Photograph: Joshua Bright\/The Guardian<\/p>\n